Message management facility for an industrial process control environment
First Claim
1. A message management facility within a node, in a process control network environment, separate from a control processor for routing a stream of messages received from the control processor to a set of supervisory destinations, the message management facility comprising:
- a message receiver for receiving a message including a message group ID field;
message routing information comprising a set of message routing entries, wherein each routing entry includes;
a message group ID value, and a set of message routing destinations for received messages specifying the message group ID; and
a destination server for transmitting the message received by the message receiver to one or more network destinations in accordance with an ID specified in the message group ID field and a set of message routing destinations specified in a corresponding routing entry of the message routing information.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A message management facility is described herein that is hosted by a networked node, in a process control network environment, that is separate from a control processor. The message management facility routes a stream of messages received from the control processor to a set of destinations on a supervisory network. By interposing the message management facility on a node that is interposed, in a message steam, between alarm message sources (control processors) and alarm message sinks (workstations, printers, historians), a number of additional functions can be implemented to carry out a number of advanced functions. Examples of such functions include: table-based routing of a single alarm to a number of destinations on an application network, suppressing alarm showers by applying a criterion to received messages when shower conditions have been sensed, invoking commands based upon a configured category assigned to particular identified messages prior to delivery of the message to its final destination, and invoking actions in response to event/mode status changes (including re-prioritizing alarms).
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Citations
38 Claims
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1. A message management facility within a node, in a process control network environment, separate from a control processor for routing a stream of messages received from the control processor to a set of supervisory destinations, the message management facility comprising:
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a message receiver for receiving a message including a message group ID field;
message routing information comprising a set of message routing entries, wherein each routing entry includes;
a message group ID value, and a set of message routing destinations for received messages specifying the message group ID; and
a destination server for transmitting the message received by the message receiver to one or more network destinations in accordance with an ID specified in the message group ID field and a set of message routing destinations specified in a corresponding routing entry of the message routing information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A message monitor within a node, in a process control network environment, separate from a control processor for monitoring a stream of messages received from the control processor and initiate executing a command in response to detecting particular identified messages in the stream of messages, the message monitor comprising:
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a message table including a set of message table entries, each entry comprising;
a message ID, and a command ID;
a message receiver including a message monitoring functionality for;
receiving a message including a message ID value, and identifying a categorized message by locating an entry in the message table corresponding to the received message; and
command execution functionality that initiates executing a command associated with the command ID, of the entry in the message table for the categorized message, in association with the message receiver identifying the categorized message. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A status message monitor within a node, in a process control network environment, separate from a control processor for monitoring a stream of messages received from the control processor and initiate executing a command in response to detecting particular identified status messages in the stream of messages, the message monitor comprising:
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a message receiver including a message monitoring functionality for identifying status changes relating to modes/events specified in a received message; and
initiating executing actions in accordance with a current mode/events status in view of the received message. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A message management facility within a node, in a process control network environment, separate from a control processor for regulating flow of a stream of messages, received from the control processor to a set of supervisory destinations, in response to sensing a message shower condition, the message management facility comprising:
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a message receiver for receiving a stream of messages including a priority value;
a destination server for transmitting messages from the stream of messages received by the message receiver to one or more network destinations; and
a message shower condition detector for detecting message shower conditions, and wherein a message shower suppression criterion, invoked in response to detecting message shower conditions, is applied to the stream of messages to limit passing messages to the network destinations via the destination server. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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Specification